James Preston Poindexter

James Preston Poindexter
Poindexter in 1887
Born	(1819-10-26)October 26, 1819 Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Died	February 7, 1907(1907-02-07) (aged 87) Columbus, Ohio
Occupation	minister
Political party	Free Soil Party, Republican
Religion	Baptist

James Preston Poindexter (October 26, 1819 – February 7, 1907) was an abolitionist, civil rights activist, politician, and baptist minister from Columbus, Ohio. He was born in Richmond, Virginia and moved to Ohio as a young man. In Ohio he was a part of abolitionist and Underground Railroad societies and became a Baptist preacher. From the pulpit, he preached against slavery and for African-American rights. After the American Civil War (1861-1865), he was involved in political activities in Columbus, serving on the City Council, the city Board of Education, the state Forestry Bureau, and as trustee of the Institute for the Blind and of Wilberforce University. At his death, he was noted as the second longest serving advocate for African American rights after Booker T. Washington.

James Preston Poindexter was born in Richmond, Virginia October 26, 1819 to Evelina and Joseph Poindexter. His mother was black and Cherokee. Joseph was a white man and may have been a brother of George Poindexter, second governor of Mississippi. Joseph was a journalist at the Richmond Enquirer. His mother died when he was four years old. As a child, he attended school, and at the age ten, he was apprenticed to the barber's business. He worked in an aristocratic shop, and Poindexter became acquainted with many Richmond leaders. He later moved to Ohio, settling in Columbus at the age of twelve. In Ohio, he continued to attend school, now privately, and to work as a barber, which again afforded him a variety of useful contacts. In the 1840s he married. After giving the baccalaureate sermon before the graduating class of the State University, Louisville, Kentucky in May, 1887, he was granted an honorary Doctor of Divinity by the school.

Poindexter was baptized at the Second Baptist Church in Columbus in the spring of 1840, was ordained in 1849, and became pastor of the Second Baptist Church in 1862, serving until 1893. He was a member of the Pastor's Union and later elected president of the union.